Frost 10th, Year 119, Age of Steel
It started out as a normal day, but the same could be said of a lot of things in Alyssum's life. It almost started as a normal day, but something almost always felt off. A strangeness to the air that left her lungs working overtime to bring in the heaviness and try to contain it. An odd sensation of not quite rightness that primed her muscles to flee. Usually, she paid attention to that feeling. Ever rathari she'd ever met told her that their kind has instincts for a reason. You should listen to them. But she didn't.
She didn't because it was in the middle of a city. What terrible thing could occur that she'd need to lock herself away in a safe space? No, in a city there was so much action she could miss out on if she played nice with every assorted whim her mind felt confident of. That's why the day started off normal. That's why she ignored the subtle ache that came from being tensed up like a spring that was wound too tight as the world seemed to teem and whisper secrets that she didn't know. Maybe it was better that way, she'd reassured herself. Some secrets weren't for her to know no matter how badly she wished. This was one of those secrets that she kind of wished she could go back after learning. The secret that no one ever told travelers about in great detail.
The simple fact that Kalzasi is never actually safe. Not from outside threats. Not from inside threats. Not from its own underbelly.
With the sun setting, one typically expects silence and peace to finally take over. Not Alyssum, but she'd lived with criminals before. That being said, even for someone like her, sirens weren't something she quite expected come nightfall. No, even as a denizen of the world who'd walked every inch she had access to, she'd never lived somewhere where sirens suddenly went off seemingly at random. Because of that, she didn't fully understand what it meant. Why those few people who were around her so late at night on the streets suddenly seemed to scatter. Why doors slammed and she was left alone in a world that was too quiet except for sirens.
In the distance, she could hear yelling. The sounds of a clash. Even over the cry of sirens, it was a readily accessible noise. She glanced around, trying to catch sight of anyone who would explain what was going on. She didn't see a person. At least, not a person that was right.
What she meant by that, was that creature appeared at the end of the street. Tall and with a jaw that drooped far below where a normal human was supposed to be. At least, she thought the terrible arrangement of bodyparts was supposed to be human. Was supposed to look human. Maybe at one point it even was a human. But it absolutely wasn't one anymore. She'd never even see necromantic beasts with such terrible appearances. Its eyes were pure white, one of which was scratched and oozing a terrible yellow puss like secretion. One of its arms dangled a bit lower than the other, almost seeming limp as though it'd been broken. The other arm seemed to work, the hand at the end was large and covered with sharp claws that glistened red.
The creature looked at her for a moment. Both she and it froze, watching one another. Before she'd fully processed exactly what it was it gave a blood-curdling screech and started charging at her, using its working arm to help propel it forward faster while the other arm danged and smacked against the ground. It didn't care.
Her first instinct was to turn on her heels and flee, so she did. She spread her wings to try and get herself off the ground, but she wasn't good at sudden take-offs so the most she could do was propel herself a foot or two before coming back to earth. Her panic wasn't doing her any favors either. It made her wing beats uneven and sloppy, making the take-off even harder.
So, she did the one thing that she'd always fallen back on in life when there was no other escape to turn to. She raised her voice as loud as she physically could and yelled out a single word. "Help!"
